Sciophobia [Flashback]

[Deleted]

A cold chill ran down his spine, a nerve numbing freeze which could shake your very bones. Even during the ‘summer’ months, the Mountain Fortress that houses the League of Shadows is subject to adverse weather conditions worse than most other countries’ during their winters. Standing upon the wooden balcony at the rear of the building, Ra’s al Ghul had a perfect view of the surrounding valley of ice and rock, a canyon so high that it almost pierced the sky above with its jagged peaks. Only the whistle of the wind echoed through the air, until a passing bird of prey began to swoop and tumble through the clouds as it looked for its next meal, screeching as it dived down into the distance.

In the light breeze, the flags positioned around the Fortress swayed on their poles. Plain of colour, a solid black, they represented the shadows, a darkness which required no intricate symbols or emblems, just a base colour. Although simplistic, this banner warned all that this land belonged to the League and those entering it were deemed as trespassers, a crime which they would be punished for severely. The American did not comprehend the law of the land when he attempted to steal from these Mountains without first coming before Ra’s himself. Foreigners are slow to realise and understand the danger they are in when they cross the League, even if it is for the crime of stealing flowers.

A curious offence, not one Ra’s has ever encountered before but stealing is stealing and this man has seemingly travelled a great distance for the poppy which blooms in the foot hills of the Mountains. Lifting the palm of his hand, the Master of this Order inspected the lavender flower closely before placing it back into his pocket. “Very curious.” The obsidian robes he wore moved like the banners that surrounded him, moving with the wind that tunnelled past the glaciers. Turning from the view of the countryside, Ra’s paced back into the interior of the building, which was illuminated by the open shutters on the wall. The sound of steel clashing rang from the training courtyard in the centre, where young disciplines were proving that they were worthy to continue the work of the League.

Continuing down the main stair case, the Mentor was met with many students and experienced assassins alike. All stepped out of his path and bowed to show their respect for the founder of the organisation which they serve fanatically. Like the flags and walls, they all wore black, to show their dedication to the shadows which were their main weapon against evil. Shadows are creations of light, servants of enlightenment. It took him a few minutes to reach the cells found deep within the bowels of their base. Many men had entered this prison but few had ever left. Alive that is. This was not a place of torture however. Their actions were not sadistic, better to deal out death swiftly to your foes then prolong their suffering, as that is not how justice works.

The last cell contained the American thief. “Open the door.” And his command was carried out, as the Jailer rammed his keys into the lock then swung the metal door open. It was dark with in the cramped room, as no light could reach them down here and the only candle was outside in the corridor. With no windows, it would be impossible not to lose track of time as the days all began to blur into one. That was torture of the mind, not the body. There he was, the trespasser and thief, now just another prisoner who will be forgotten quickly. His punishment must be decisive, so that other would be criminals are shown the risk they take when they oppose the League. “I am Ra’s al Ghul and your end is sharp approaching. Before you die, tell me why you have come here, why we found you in the fields.”

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

The cage he’d been thrown in was dark and wet. The air was so humid around him, where exactly was he again? The cage was made of mostly stone with metal bars in front, he couldn’t see a way to escape and the closed space didn’t help with the humidity. He hands were tied and his legs were chained, he could barely move. What was worse is the sweating under the sweltering heat. Sweat dropped down his brow as he sat with his head hung and traveled down the tip of his nose and onto the floor. His once brown hair now turned black with the moisture that it soaked.

Who were those people that drug him in here? They were like shadows how fast they closed in, but not the kind that embraced him so, this kind was swift and silent. It was difficult to imagine they were planning on doing anything good with him in a cell tied up like this. He didn’t know who they were or what they wanted. If he was in their place of dwelling he wasn’t even aware of it, he was outside. Perhaps they just kidnapped him to steal from him, but if that was the case why didn’t they rob him and leave him there? Or slay him? It didn’t make any sense for non-organized criminals to act like this. He was dealing with something very different.

The discovery that he had made was far too important and he wouldn’t give it up so easily. He wouldn’t give it up easily even though he was tied up like this. What he had found was just worth so much more. He had to take what he found back so that he could further analyze and test and get results and support for his theories.

He heard steps coming down the hall and he lifted his head. He judged the man that came in immediately by his attire. He looked important, not a modern importance, but at least important to those that kidnapped him. Yes, this man was a leader, he had the look and he had the air about him when he walked in. It was the way he held himself that demanded so much attention and when he spoke it confirmed his seating in all of this.

Dr. Crane’s hunched over posture due to his restraints tightened when he spoke of death. He struggled and squirmed to look up clearer at him, He was a man that didn’t struggle with confidence but it was difficult being on the ground with his life threatened. His work was just too important and he couldn’t let that go. “Death? He struggled and tried to wiggle forward. “No! No! I’m a scientist!” He tried to explain before this man decided it was necessary to kill him. “The Poppy! I was going to us its properties in my newest experiment.” He swallowed and paused trying to save his skin. “I didn’t know that they were yours” He furthered but he wouldn’t say he wouldn’t do it again. He needed that poppy and he found it absurd that the man kidnapped him in the first place for it.

[Deleted]

Droplets of water tumbled from the ceiling, with one landing upon Ra’s shoulder before he moved to a drier area. Howling wind echoed from the outside World, shaking the foundations of the room with its icy breath, absorbing the whole building in its winter fury. Any escape attempt from the Cell would be a gesture of futility, as a fate worse than death would find you in the maze of Mountain trenches which surrounded the five hundred year old monastery. Sheer cliffs coupled with mighty winds have lead to the deaths of many a firm footed traveller. The temperature often reaches minus 40 or worse, causing men to die of extreme hypothermia or at the very least they will lose digits to the crippling chills of frostbite. These conditions mean that no man made defences are necessary for the League’s training facility due to the natural dangers posed to all who attempt the arduous climb. No army could ever successfully march on them without the fear of becoming lost in such storms and cold.

The Man before Ra’s must have had a strong reason to come to these Mountains, either that or he is insane if he only looks for flowers. Thieves have tried to take cattle, gold and women before, but never simple poppies which grow in abundance on the slopes of these hills. Turning back around to the captive with a surprised feeling in his head, Ra’s loomed down upon him. “Scientists now have to steal, do they?” Placing a foot upon the Scientists chest, he exerted a great deal of pressure through the heavy boot before removing it so that he could pace further. No reason came to mind for why anyone would desire to use such a flower. True, it had been discovered that they held some hallucinogenic abilities, useful for dazing your enemies but very little else.

“How did you come to know about these flowers? Did you bribe someone, force them to spill secrets?” Corruption was second nature to most Americans, but he doubted that any Assassin would betray the order but perhaps some villager who harboured a hatred for the League that watched over them, protected them. The thought angered him greatly even if this Doctor knew nothing of the laws which governed these parts. Ignorance is no defence against justice. It doesn’t matter what he was trying to steal for his experiment or whatever purpose. However there is the possibility that this man is an expert on the flower, with knowledge on how to expand their usage. “What was your intention? To create something with the flower?” Never raising his voice, Ra’s kept his usual commanding tone, which didn’t require him to shout. While questioning him, his hand grabbed the scruff of his shirt, pulling him closer so that he may glimpse into his eyes to tell if he was lying about his reasons for being here.

Fingers of steel dug into his cheeks as he looked over the man that literally sat in the palm of his hand. There was emptiness in his gaze, as if he looks straight through you or sees you as something else entirely. After a few moments he lets go, flexing his joints before stroking his grey beard. “Tell me, do you know who I am?”

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

The sweat dripping down off his body was unbearable, he wanted to remove his shirt, but it the thought of the chill air that had come in with him against his skin was not pleasing. Either way he’d need to get it off eventually or be caught hypothermic. His pants he could probably bear it, but eventually he’d need a change of clothes all together. Something told him in the presence of this man, tied up like this that these people were not in it for his ultimate comfort.

He shook his head rapidly before he saw the foot lift and collide with his chest. He felt the pressure placed onto him like an anvil. The man had height and weight over him at this moment and he wasn’t the most well-endowed man when it came to muscle mass. He squirmed and struggled under the weight, trying to find the breath to explain.”No, I didn’t know it was yours, I had no intention to steal!” he tried to tell him again, but it seemed it was falling upon deaf ears.

Dr. Crane felt like he could breathe again when his foot came off of his chest, but yet again it caused his sweat soaked shirt to adhere to his body. He wiggled around and tried to get it to peel from him but his next question suddenly made him still. It didn’t happen that way, no one had told him but he wasn’t about to just say how he had discovered they were here. “No one told me anything.. He coughed out, almost feeling sick already. He watched the man carefully pace around him, not daring to keep his silence through his questioning, though he wanted to. He was in no position to try and overthrow his command to attention. He nodded with his next question. “ Yes, I want to use it in an experiment of mine, I have a hypothesis about it…a prediction…I want to test.” He swallowed and tried to catch his breath again. The cold was gripping and pulling at his chest, making him ache.

But before he could get another breath in suddenly he was yanked forward. The doctor hissed with the pull and struggled in his grip. He felt his fingers like ice dig into his cheeks, commanding his jaw and demanding his attention. His glacial eyes stared back into his, he had it, fully. As he stared he found out a lot about the man in front of him just from his gaze. The eyes opened up a world inside the others min. He had come to know far too much about that in his life and there was only one conclusion, but here….this was different.

The doctor finally settled in his hand and kept still as he processed the next question. He tried to search for an answer but the only thing that came to mind was a blank sheet. He had never seen this man, heard of him, or had any idea why he was here. What man is this that lives here? That commands these people around him? He felt for a moment that he had fallen into a cult, but why would they be out here? Were they protecting the flower? His mouth suddenly dried and it became hard to swallow. He couldn’t let them have it, it was far too important.

“No.” The doctor spoke the truth and finally tried to slip his jaw from his grip. “I’ve never seen you before, if you are looking for someone you’ve made a mistake…Let me take what I need and let me go.” He made his demands quickly and precisely.

[Deleted]

Turning away from the captive, Ra’s faced the darkened corner with his back to the restrained thief as he rubbed the sweat from the Prisoners face from his palm. Shadows consumed him as he weighed up the words of the man, listening intently while planning his next steps. Many paths were open to him, the safest option being to just kill him right now, it removes any chance of trouble arising. However that may be a grievous error, costing the League a potentially useful asset, if this Doctor’s work could aid them in some way. “A hypothesis? Pray tell what your theory is?” Memories of a past life flooded back to him, of days spent in the desert with a wife, with a laboratory. I want to help people, I want to be a Doctor. Words now lost to time, now there is only the League, that life is as dead as the home he sacked and pillaged.

Self-reflection was broken by the sudden confidence and forth-rightness of the other man in the room. “If you knew who I am, you wouldn’t be making such demands as you are in a position most unfit. I am contemplating whether I should take your hands first before I take your head, so anything you say will affect my judgment for better or worse. Let it not be said that I do not uphold a degree of fairness, as I will hear your defense.” There was very little that the man could say to persuade Ra’s to free him or at least stay his scimitar from his throat. In truth, Ra’s was only interested in the motive for this seemingly innocent crime. Allowing small crimes to go unpunished would eventually lead to more complicated problems; with it giving the League’s allies room to doubt their judgment while showing their enemies that they are not to fear. As long as you are feared, you are a force to be reckoned with.

“You might have noticed the last men to trespass against us as you were brought here. Chinese special forces, now their heads stand on pikes by the road side, a warning to those who would presume to have authority over us.” Very few Americans stood in their ranks, though when thinking of the Land of the Free, only one City jumps to mind; Gotham. Seemingly, the earlier plans to cripple the economy had failed, leaving the City a plague on the World. Next time the League will return in force, rather than stealth. As of late, Talia had being leading the teams in the field, allowing Ra’s more time to prepare what would become his master plan for the City but somehow the strategy was lacking something, a key element to tie it up. Removing the poppy from his pocket, he held it in his palm, allowing the rays of light to reflect off the small piece of flora. With an intense glance, the Demon watched his prisoner’s reaction to the flower, placing it down in front of him, on a dry piece of the floor directly in the sun light.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

Dr. Crane panted when he walked away from him. It was so blisteringly cold, but he couldn’t stop sweating. It was clearly going to be a hypothermic situation here shortly. When he inquired about what he thought he almost corrected him but, what was left of his sense told him it wasn’t a good idea to correct the man that was talking about killing him. He held his tongue instead and waited for him to finish completely.

The thought of others that had come through here hadn’t even crossed his mind. Of course he had seen what was done but he didn’t pay any mind to it, it wasn’t his affair. He was only here for the flower and nothing else mattered, he didn’t think that there were people that actually thought they had ownership over such a thing. He didn’t assume he had authority over him, he couldn’t, he didn’t even know he was there. That was an unfortunate mistake that might be his last. He wouldn’t even get to put in a respectable resignation letter….He would just go missing from work and no one would ever look for him.

His thoughts jumbled as he went over that possibility and almost forgot that the man deciding his fate was asking him a very important question. He swallowed roughly before he tried to speak. His mouth was so dry it felt like a desert. “The flower, it produces a chemical reaction that can induce a state of anxiety.” He coughed and tried to explain the rest, shivering in his restraints. A dry tongue licked his lips, but it didn’t make speaking any easier. “With the right, properties I believe that it can do more than that, I…I think it could induce a more permanent state of terror…To the point to where it’s not just raising paranoia but actual immersion in fear its self.” He tried to explain as clearly as he could in simplest of terms.

His chest felt heavy after giving that information away, like it had become sacred to him. He had poured everything into this trip and he knew that he was right about it. Right now it looked like he couldn’t even get a decent explanation out, or at least a medically and chemically accurate one. He didn’t want to make it too complex incase he didn’t understand but he didn’t want to say he was dumbing it down either. He said what he said and just left it at that with it. But then his eyes cast to the floor where the man had laid the poppy. At first he hadn’t even noticed it had been placed there, he was so focused on….everything else.

The more he stared the more he became enveloped in its presence; he was bent upon obtaining it. The flower had to be his. He knew that was he had claimed about the poppy was true and if he could just have enough time with it, he could prove it. At the moment, his future with it looked bleak. He tried to move toward it in his restraints but all he did was cause a rope to pull tighter on one side. He groaned in anguish, his body becoming tired from the hypothermia trying its best to settle in.

"Please, Just let me go. I'll just take it and go. He again refused to leave without it.

[Deleted]

Standing in silence, Ra’s listened intently to the Scientist’s words as he pondered the usefulness of such a toxin. Over the years, science has played a large part in the schemes of the League, either keeping them one step ahead with the newest technology or providing them a lethal weapon to use against their enemies. Although not officially recognized, it was thought amongst many Assassins and known only by Ra’s as he was still alive, that among one of many advancements in weaponry, quartermasters for the League were the first people to ever harness gunpowder, making the first working gun at least ten years before the weapon was officially recognized. Pioneering discoveries such as these have kept the League one step ahead of their enemies, allowing them an advantage through which they may strike.

However not all scientific discoveries were so conventionally and bound to hand held weaponry. When the Great Plague hit London in 1665, it did so due to the engineering of a new strain of the centuries old bubonic plague. A City of greed and debauchery was brought to its knees with the death of over 100,000 of its citizens. In his mind, the Demon wondered if this new toxin could have a similar part to play in the fight against the unlawful. “Fear itself? Not everyone fears the same construct; will it attack personal phobias or a collective fear such as say arachnophobia?” If feelings could be harnessed, then could anger and hatred be stamped out in favor of devotion and honesty? Pressing a finger vertically upon his lips, he thought for a moment, considering the effects and potential consequences for such a theory.

By the sound of his tone, the Doctor did not have the ingredients as of yet, just a theory with no means to deploy it, thus giving reason to why he would bother to steal. If only he had come to Ra’s himself to propose this plan rather than attempting to move under the radar in a deceitful manner. Grabbing his beaten prisoner by the ruff of his hair, Ra’s moved in closer as he spoke, tangling his fingers through the black locks with a course grip. “What do you need to achieve these results and how long until such a toxin can be formed?” Maintaing his hold until a response was given, he released his fingers, throwing back his captive onto the floor again, wiping his hand over his chest to remove any filth from it. “Who are you? Why would an upstanding researcher come all this way when he could have others retrieve these ingredients for him?”

“But before that, allow me to introduce myself. I am Ra’s al Ghul, Head of the Demon and leader of the League of Assassins and you owe me a debt, Sir. I have decided to prolong your execution for the time being so that you may serve penance for your crime. Your life if mine now, I shall use it as I see fit. In return you will have this.” With a quick throw, he tossed the poppy to before the Scientist. Sitting on the tiny stool in the corner, Ra’s managed to hunker down upon it, lightly crossing his legs as he stroked his beard with a soft touch.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

The young doctor rolled his lips, becoming dizzy in that instant. His vision had blurred for a moment and he shook his head, trying his best to listen. ‘Not everyone fears the same construct’ – The words rang in his ears and he tried to think about them and break them down. It made sense when you thought about it, people claimed they were afraid of different things and other acted like they weren’t afraid of others, but Dr. Crane had another prediction about fear and he believed he was completely right. Whenever something was classified as a phobia is generally meant that the individual couldn’t continue what was considered a normal life with the fear. That was when it turned into a phobia, when it interfered with your daily life.

But even though he knew the true definition he didn’t dare correct the man. Instead he thought carefully about how to respond. Again the man came toward him again and he had no time to think. Before he could respond his hair was tangled in his hands once more. The doctor hissed in pain and his eyes squeezed shut, trying to bite back any sound that would come to the surface. This wasn’t a time to be complaining about anything. He fired questions at him again and his only immediate response was to open his eyes and take him in. It was in that moment that he felt it in his gut that somehow he was never going to leave here same.

Suddenly he was throw to the ground hard. He huffed and squirmed, trying to sit upright again but he just couldn’t manage to. The last thing he wanted to do was look like he was in the right position to be killed. Why couldn’t he just give him what he deserved and let him go. The flower was in his sight as he laid there on the ground and his eyes fixated on it. Was all of this worth it? Was this flower really worth his life? As the man began to introduce himself he gave him a glance and then looked back upon the flower as he heard his own fate sealed.

Your life is mine now.

It seemed like no matter how far he ran from his past it would catch up with him. When he wasn’t paying for his sins in one area he started paying for them in another. It seemed that it was what he was destined for. His eyes darkened when he picked it up and put it on the stool, calling it his. The flower was his…..

And it was worth everything.

Before he let too much time to pass for this “Demon Dead” to think he started moving over the questions he was asked again, forming a proper response without giving too much and withholding too much. “I need the flower….The rest I can do with experiments back in my lab..My name is Dr. Crane, I graduated at Gotham University with High Honors….I work at Arkham Asylum as a psychiatric doctor….I came on my own, without anyone knowing….and I didn’t want anyone to know.” He answered all of his questions as quickly and as thoroughly as he could. He gave him just enough information that he thought would satisfy him. But he wasn’t sure that it would be enough to free him from what he said before. The harsh reality of what he had gotten himself into was settling in. This man was powerful and he had a following….of Assassins. He noted that he never said he spared him from execution….just prolonged it…..But that might be all he needed.

[Deleted]

“You are a lucky man, Dr. Crane. Few men are allowed second chances.” With a swift snap of his piercing finger tips, the Gaoler came running with the set of keys in hand, knowing which of the seemingly identical keys would open the cell’s lock. Lurching open with a rustic tone, the pair could not exit the stone box they currently stood in, so that they may discuss their terms in a better light and setting. Moving through the open door, the Jailer produced another key for Crane’s restraints, allowing them to fall to the floor as he undid them from around his wrists and ankles. With darting eyes, he watched the metal slip from the skin, noticing the marks left behind as his fingers ran over his own forearms, feeling ghost wounds from an imprisonment years previously. A Sultan bound him, in a cage, like an animal, for the world to see and laugh. Such was the price of being ‘a good man’.

Shaking off past memories, Ra’s stormed from the Cell, giving no gesture for Jon to follow but expecting him to do so all the same. “A great honour has being bestowed upon you, understand that. Few men have the provocation and desire to do true good in this world, fewer have the actual means. As we sin, as do we suffer, as you will learn eventually but for now you have the potential to be redeemed for whatever crimes you may have committed in the past.” As they walked together through the building, they soon entered an open corridor which looked down upon the training courtyard which sat in the centre of the building. Sharp beats of steel swords singing echoed from the duals fought below as followers constantly honed their already lethal skills.

Sunlight bounced through the wooden blinds on the walls, giving tiny glimpses into the outside mountain range. Wind battered the wooden panels, the whistle of gales floating through the cracks in the walls. This fortress was not one of wood and stone, but of ice and sleet, its position made it that nature could do to an army what an thousand arrows never could. “Some people believe that redemption can be only found in the eyes of God. The same people who brutally murdered Women in the belief that they were ‘witches’. No, there is no hell or heaven. The only thing that matters is what we do in this one life, wouldn’t you agree?” By the time he had finished speaking, they had both managed to walk through to a balcony which looked out onto the vast wasteland of ice before them, a ravine situated directly below them.

Taking a deep breath, Ra’s stood in silence for a few seconds as he closed his eyes, ignoring the man by his side as he experienced the warm light upon his cheeks, mixed with the free air which ran through his lungs. As quickly as the thought entered his mind, Ra’s grabbed Jon by the scruff of his tattered shirt and pulled him over to the edge of the balcony, which had no surrounding barriers, like all the balconies in the building. Fear of falling is a fear, a weakness which must be stamped out, so everyone must face this fear, removing any power such phobia had over them. Using his muscular arm, he dragged Crane to the side, holding him just in front of the precipice with a blank expressionless face, his other arm positioned behind his back formally. “If I were to drop you, how would you look back on your deeds and life? It’s a long drop, you would have time to think about all of your mistakes, every wrong doing you have made in your pitiful tale of despair and depression. I see it in your eyes; I saw it the moment I looked down upon you, as you lay like a rat upon the floor. I can and will let go, unless you tell me what you want to achieve and how you want to change.”

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

He was a lucky man. Those words rang in his ears as he looked up at the man that towered over him. It wasn’t the first time he’d been called lucky in his life but he believed this was the first time he’d actually felt it. Considering what life had handed to him he didn’t understand how others could consider him lucky, but he seemed to always be able to escape situations that would ruin him. He had done nothing but be able to build himself up, as long as he was the only one involved. Now, that more people were invading their way into his life luck was becoming an unfortunate variable again. The snap rang through the cell and suddenly a man was coming to unlock his chains.

He looked to the floor again as it was done, his hands first and then his ankles. It wasn’t until he was actually freed of them he realized how heavy they were. The doctor was finally able to move again. He rubbed his left wrist, which seemed to hurt the most from the sudden jerk up he had earlier. The shackles were certainly going to leave marks by the morning. His ankles would be the same, but they needed to carry him regardless. He took a steadying breath after he was freed, enjoying life as it came through his lips.

Ra’s spoke again and started heading out. He never gestured for him to follow but he could only assume he was free and didn’t want to be left there again. He got up quickly and trailed behind his cloak listening to him. The man had a lot of philosophy’s on life, but so did he. The only differences between their philosophies was which one was the truth and which one wasn’t. Dr. Crane knew the difference between the two and which one was which. When he finally did ask him a question it seemed rhetorical and he didn’t dare answer at that moment.

He turned his sights from him when they got to the balcony and looked out across the glacial space. Why had he taken him here? His eyes took in the scenery until suddenly the ground was ripped from him. He was lifted with ease and part of his shirt tore with the twist as he was drug to the edge. The doctor struggled in his grip and his heels dug hard to what surface area they still possessed. He did not come here to be thrown off a cliff anymore than he did to die in that cell. He caught sight of the fall below him and then looked directly back at Ra’s as he spoke.

If he looked back on his deeds in life….What life had he had? His mistakes….The doctor didn’t make mistakes. Any wrongs that he had done….He knew what society called wrong, but to him it was justice that never came to him. Justice wasn’t something that existed but the doctor knew what he could control and what he couldn’t. Those lives….he could control. He took a moment of pause before he answered. He knew the truth, but would a man like Ra’s accept such a truth was the question. “There is nothing to fear….” He told himself aloud more than he did Ra’s about how he felt in being dropped. But there was no fear in his eyes, just a cold empty space that laid over the drop to his doom. He knew the truth and it was beneath him, growing on these mountains. “ I just want to show the world the truth…” He answered honestly. If he knew the truth….who was he to keep it from everyone who didn’t?

[Deleted]

With a clench fist, his bony fingers held tightly onto the fabric of Jon’s shirt, however his fingers began to loosen slightly as his prisoner took a pause of reflection, only regaining his hold when the answer came. It took little effort on Ra’s’ part to bring Jon back onto his feet, bringing him forward onto the ledge, letting go once he had done so. “The truth? The truth is that there is something to fear, not toxins or scientists but the coming judgement which will face all of Humanity, and you Dr. Crane. Your actions and deeds will be placed before you and you will have to account for said decisions. But that day is not today; today you will seek redemption for crimes past and future.” Fear can drive men insane; turn them into beasts of madness, a useful tool, second only to the greatest motivator: hope.

Stepping to the side of Jon, Ra’s stared out into the Mountains, moving focus from his current presence to the falling of the Sun, setting in the west over the peaks of a set of glaciers, signalling the end of another day. Upon those distant peaks, grows the flower now so important to this plan which has been formulated so suddenly. “You shall return to your City, Dr. Crane but not alone. Two of my men will accompany you back to America where they’ll provide you with further instructions given by myself. In the following number of weeks, I shall see to the collection of the poppies which populate this valley, all while a new laboratory will be built for you to work in. It shall be a few months before the first of the shipments arrive, so understand that I am placing a large amount of faith in you, Doctor. Do not fail me."

Of course the men going with him have a dual purpose; firstly to relay information between their mentor and Crane, and to act as guards for his investment. If any scent of treason is discovered, they’ll quickly end his life but Ra’s doubted that it would come to that, as it seemed that Jon would rely on the future in flow of supplies coming from the League. While he has no desire to, Ra’s will personally see to it that Crane meets a most unpleasant end if he attempts to betray the trust placed in him by his once captives. A thought quickly crossed his mind; is this wise decision on his part? The smart thing to do would be to just push him to his death now and be done with it all, but then this chance would be lost. If what this Scientist does what he can claim to do, then it will provide a major weapon against his enemies.

How does someone fight fear, their own emotions and phobias? It is simply an impossible downhill battle, one that no one could hope to overcome as it would not be a physical entity that you are fighting, it would be your own psyche. A vision of a City lost in a tempest of hysteria and fear flooded his mind; the evolution of chemical warfare, and he will have total control over it.

[Jonathan Crane - Scarecrow]

There was a particular rush that Dr. Crane head studied quite extensively in human kind. It was the kind of rush that made your heart pound while you were facing oblivion. It was an abyss that was just as repelling as it was inviting, to some more than others. He would never admit that his own rush as he dangled over the abyss pulsed through his senses. It could all end in a moment, but would it truly? That was what he was here to find out, but not like this…Not at the hands of this man.

Dr. Crane could have corrected him, or went on a long rant of his own philosophy on the matter, but men like this couldn’t have their minds changed. Not of their own free will of course. Dr. Crane could think of many ways of how he could force him, but that would have to come far later. His hands reached up and he gripped at his own shirt to have something to hang on to.

Today he would seek redemption.

The words caused him to twitch slightly. Even after he was set down he still felt its affect. Redemption was something that man believed could be obtained by overriding some seed of evil with a veil of good. What was good or evil would be subjective to who’s side you were on at the time. Redemption was something that could only be obtained by those that held remorse for what they had done and although this man knew nothing of his past he was almost telling him to repent at his feet.

Though whatever thoughts clung to the fact that he was to be a slave to this man still lingered they quickly were losing their hold as he mentioned what he was to be aided with. His glacial eyes met with the older mans. His shoulders rose and fell more steadily now as the rest of his life was laid ahead of him. He didn’t care for the wait, but it would give him time to prepare for what he was going to do. He had his own lab back at Arkham Asylum, just issued to him actually….That would be useful to get his test subjects. He could use that lab to experiment and the other one he was going to be supplied to create.

Dr. Arkham would truly have no idea how much he had just given him before he went on this venture and now he was going to gain even more. Everything was at his fingers tips and he only had to grasp it. He turned his head to stare out at the mountains that apparently held the flower that he sought. “You won’t need faith.” He stated plainly and then said nothing more to him. He assumed that now he would be taken out of this place and transported back. From the way he had been handled in here it was only safe to predict he would be handled the same way out. He would go back to America and he would show this man fact….not faith involved.